It would be an understatement to state the importance of the regulation and/or stopping the flow of fluids to a patient on intravenous administration. The fluids here can be of any form ranging from glucose to intravenous administration of medicines in liquid form. The flow of fluid intravenously to a patient is required to be controlled since the quantity of the fluids administered is critical for the treatment of the patient. Thus, there is a requirement that a regulating mechanism is present in an intravenous set to control the flow of fluids to the patient.
Conventional art teaches that to regulate and/or cease the flow of fluids to the patient a flow controlling device is attached to the tube connected to the patient's body. Typically, this flow control device is manual and is required to be operated by a healthcare worker to stop or regulate the flow of fluids to the patient.
This flow control device has several disadvantages such as that as soon as fluid is finished in the drip chamber, if the nurse does not close the flow regulator, air may go into the patients vein and cause air embolism and lead to severe complications including death. In normal cases, without this control device, it requires the presence of a healthcare worker at all the time near the patient to keep monitoring whether there is liquid in bottle or drip chamber and they are not empty. Another disadvantage in current case is that since the flow control device being manual depends upon the operator of the flow control device. Depending upon situation and circumstances, more or less fluid may be administered to the patient, which can have unpleasant and even fatal effect on the patient. Since there is a human element involved in the controlling of flow of fluid, there is always a possibility that the healthcare worker may forget to administer the flow control and, therefore, flow may not be stopped after the fluid is used up and consequent injecting of air into patient may take place.